Straight from Johan's Twitter
Seeing all the cities around the Nile makes me happy
Oh, and the trade good density is really nice to see too!
Trade Good Map-mode!
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Straight from Johan's Twitter
Seeing all the cities around the Nile makes me happy
Oh, and the trade good density is really nice to see too!
Im not sure what that map mode is useful for other than perhaps find important strategic resources in the early game.
Well it could be good for pop movement if you want to increase production of a specific good.
Well it could be good for pop movement if you want to increase production of a specific good.
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Your probably right, I do think though that it gives a good sense of what the populated areas (places with cities/potential colonies that is) of Imperator will look like.
My guess is the grey areas are (mostly) traversable, with perhaps high levels of attrition.
My guess is the grey areas are (mostly) traversable, with perhaps high levels of attrition.
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Looks beautiful
But why so much hemp, was it really that widespread?
And isnt there a bit too much wasteland is Asia and Africa?
Also, silk in India? I tought it was a Chinese exclusive
But why so much hemp, was it really that widespread?
And isnt there a bit too much wasteland is Asia and Africa?
Also, silk in India? I tought it was a Chinese exclusive
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Hemp was really widespread, and really popular. As for silk, it was not a Chinese exclusive at all. It did come from there though.
Silk was never a Chinese exclusive, and certainly not after the bronze age.
Silk was produced in Indus Valley around the same time as Xia Dynasty/Erlitou culture in China...and was then promptly lost before re-emerging in the late bronze age and early iron age. There are two theories about this:
a) Chinese silk-making found its way to India and Persia during Zhou dynasty somehow (even though no contact existed), restarting sericulture in India. Or...
b) Much more likely - Indians rediscovered silk-making independently, though hundreds of years after it became well-established in China. This is because silk was again being produced in India by 7th and 6th century BCE, nearly 400 years before Indians and Chinese made their first contact. Indian climate also proved great for sericulture, and by medieval era, Indian production of silk exceeded and then replaced Chinese silk supply across the world until 19th century.
The point is, yes, India had silk and was one of the largest producers in the game timeframe.
Wow very interesting, but then what about the theory that the Silk Road was created to trade silk? There was no access to Indian silk?
It wasn't created just for silk. The Silk Road was not just a simple two-way street where China sold Silk in exchange for silver/gold. It's better characterized as a complex trading network. China, India, Persia, Egypt and Syria were all very important nodes in this trade network. Chinese silk was just one of many goods traded along this network; 19th century historians named it "Silk Road" because of the historical importance of Chinese silk, but it's a bit of a misnomer to the degree it implies that only silk was being traded.
Imperator is actually starting before Chinese silk dominated the trade network. Large quantities of Chinese silk won't be traded along the network until the Han dynasty explores and secures the Central Asian trade routes around 200 BCE, and the Roman fad for Chinese silk that causes the trade to absolutely explode doesn't really get started until the first century BCE. So it would be a mistake for the trade network during the game to be just about the Mediterranean-China silk trade. Silk was known and used (but not as popular) in the Mediterranean before 200 BCE, and much of that silk would have been Indian.
If you have any suggestions, do fire away, but from the research we've done, these deserts and inhospitable areas seem to be accurate for the time period. North Africa (Mauretania Tingitana) was, in places, incredibly densely forested.
Thanks for your reply Arheo, I don't have any suggestions, but it seems Iran was mostly unpopulated then? It looks a bit odd, especially compared to how dense are France and Spain which I thought were covered in forests... But again I'm not sure, I never thought about this before
Bear in mind that this mapmode doesn't show population density. Gaul had a great deal of habitable area that was sparsely populated, whereas Iran had a lot of highly inhospitable terrain, but certain areas with very built up towns and cities.
mmmhh interesting, it certainly looks amazing, can't wait to see more of that area
maybe add some more provinces to the central asian steppes though? those were probably more similar to gaul and iberia in terms of loose population and vast areas than to Iran?
The "Silk Road" is just a name popularized by historians. It does not mean it was a route created for Silk exclusively and nothing else.
The "Silk Road" was actually a far larger network of different trade routes, roads, ports, agents, traders, nations and policies between Rome, Persia, India and China and their respective areas of influence spanning almost entire Eurasia.
Each power traded something that other nation needed.
- China traded the Chinese silk, glazed porcelain, incense, jade and tea leaves alongside woodcraft and some unique fabrics.
- India exported spices, herbs, perfumes, elephant-tusk ivory, gems, the famous Wootz steel (also known as Damascus steel), jewelery, rich textiles and the Indian silk. And also religion.
- Rome traded gold, silver (from their large mines in Hispania and Dacia), glassware, marble, expensive dyes, wood, leather, tools and so on.
- Persia traded intricately crafted carpets and clothes, medicines, painted glassware, dates and other highly demanded fruits, weapons and so on.
These were further supplied with other trade routes. Rome had contacts with lots of tribes along the Tin Road for example. India had began to colonize Southeast Asia. China had established trade with Korea, the northern steppes and Yamato/Wa tribe of Japan. Persia controlled sea lanes in Arabia and eastern Africa in conjunction with India. All these brought in more goods.
Everyone got what they needed, and economy flourished at unprecedented rate across these four civilizations. India and China emerged as the largest and second largest economies in the world, respectively. And of course, Indian silk reached Rome as well.
I think the Thar desert could be shortened a lot. Due to the existence of Saraswati and Ghaggar-Hakra rivers there were some towns and cities there.
Also I think the Dandaka forest area (also a wasteland for some reason) could be cut entirely and replaced with Mid-tech tribal realms. They are mentioned in many Purana texts (and associated king lists) written between 1st century BC - 2nd centuries AD.
They certainly weren't unpopulated regions, in fact they had larger populations than many areas in Gaul or Germania.
Is that Fish in Djerba (somewhat hard to read, but the colour looks similar), if so I would suggest changing it to Dyes as the Island of Djerba was well known for its Dyes production.
From Wikipedia: Products included embroidery, carpets, and use of the purple murex dye (for which the Carthaginian isle of Djerba was famous).
From Wikipedia: Products included embroidery, carpets, and use of the purple murex dye (for which the Carthaginian isle of Djerba was famous).
That's a lot of wasteland.
I'm actually loving it, it's going to make the geographic features of some areas very important.
I'm actually loving it, it's going to make the geographic features of some areas very important.
So many cities it's almost giving me a headache to look at. I hope the game is decently managable even for large empires.
